Reset review, food and other good things

I'm finding my new less-filled schedule is so much better for my current energy level. I'm learning to dodge the kneejerk response and it's so much better.  I'm not doing All the Things.

But I have got back into daily exercise with yes2next, which is reviving my energy, oddly. My doctor would say what did I tell you? Move less it's harder to move, move more it's easier.  

The heat and humidity have hit my walking, and yesterday I got in half the distance then was so fatigued and hot I turned back. But indoor movement is good. Back into strength training, too.

My neighbor I haven't seen in a while, gardening expert, came out as I passed on my walk, to  chat plants,  and exchange Gary updates(!). She commented that he's trying to live in two places at once, too true.

Then, great news, my contractor artist friend came Thursday to measure and decide the bathroom work, yay. He's very apologetic about having me wait so long, but this year he's been slammed. 

Not just work, his faraway widowed mother needed a visit, he's the only child, more health issues. He also got involved in fostering, retraining and rehoming a dog for someone who couldn't cope (pause for phone search for pictures, cavapoo, beautiful).  

This ended up in driving the dog to Florida, many hours, to rehome the dog with his own daughter, great choice. He will not fly with his own dogs, airlines terrible with animals, so he wouldn't fly with this one.

Then various work issues including rescuing Gary more than once, and more Gary updates.

This is the nice thing about a small town with friendly neighbors. Contracting is not just a commercial transaction, though he did leave with decisions and paint and tile samples, it's a local verbal newspaper.

And I'm still getting flowers, probably a couple more weeks yet

The yellow ones are from a seed mix, not sure what they are, but likely black eyed susans.

And Misfits arrived in the midst of the bathroom caper

This involved one of my least favorite tasks, chopping onions, yellow and red. I use a lot, chop them into eighths, freeze, and they work in every recipe. Sometimes I chop further when I cook, but cutting semi thawed onions doesn't make a person cry. It's a chemistry thing.

I cooked the strawberries and apples together, with diced fresh ginger. I'm really liking these fruit combos with apples.

And of course the potatoes are now parboiled and great for dicing and roasting. My orders are smaller just now, doing catch-up with the freezer, read on.

Lovely shrimp with baby bellas and scallions, both cooked down in butter, over rice flavored with Better than Bouillon.

More for two more days, too. I posted a little video of this but YouTube really distorted it and it displayed without the veggies. But it still got hundreds of views, search me.

And I'm reading several books at once, what else is new, a Horowitz, a Worsley and a whole lot of Thirkell. 

I love Horowitz for his first person narrator. We know about the omniscient narrator and the unreliable narrator, and he introduces a new one. 

The aggrieved narrator, always mad at his character Hawthorne and how he gets better deals everywhere than Horowitz does, from hotel rooms to contracts.  This one is set partly in Yorkshire, many familar scenes to this North Yorkshirewoman.

Lucy takes me back to the world of the Tudors 

And Thirkell to the early twentieth century, and the world of the pre-Raphaelites, as the  granddaughter of Burne-Jones, all bases covered

And handsome Son continues, with my fervent encouragement, to declutter.

I bought this calligraphy from the artist long ago, had it for several years, passed it to Handsome Son, who asked me after several more years, to Freecycle it.

Several competitors for this including two who could read it. That was an easy placement.

Then more miscellaneous stuff -- there's more in the can there -- all of which was claimed in short order.

The cutlery tray is now in my junk drawer, all the junk organized and why didn't I think of this before, the others all gone to various destinations.

Happy day everyone, as Handsome Son routinely says in his morning text, all's good here!

August 8, tricky day

Today's Handsome Son's birthday, yay him. It's also Handsome Partner's anniversary. Our son was with him at his last moments.

This makes it a complicated day, though we decided quickly to celebrate each person on their birthday, to lift the weight off the day a bit.

So I baked a chocolate cake for Handsome Son

sent him a card, and a greeting text at the hour he was born, and he'll be over next week for a little celebration. 

Meanwhile I went out early to pick these, they're doing well this year 

and to provide mosquitoes with a nice breakfast.

I did find a suitable aquarium for SG, Mitch 

98lbs empty. A gallon weighs about 8lbs. Times 75, plus 98. It adds up.

And I'm wondering what to make next that's portable and I think I'll try this 

Happy day everyone, some days are harder to navigate than others, but we've done it before, we can do it again.

Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

Crochet success, pond walk, and third party Freecycle

Beautiful morning, and I was out early, walking, and feeling more energy. It's a particularly rugged allergy season and I have to take all kinds of drops and compresses and pills, to cope with terminally swollen itchy eyes and sneezing. I try to take as little as I can manage without, because it drags me down. It's a balance. 

Anyway today's better and I had a great walk without wanting to lie down on the way back.

There were many rings on the surface, turtles and frogs, also water striders. And you may detect a golf ball in the water.

When I was taking out the garbage I spotted this perfectly good stuff left there. Probably wouldn't fit on the truck, or maybe too expensive to move it.

So I put a picture on Freecycle as a drive by, giving location and explaining it's not mine. 

But chances are I'll get emails asking me various questions and requesting I hold it, and other things people think up. 

I'll disregard them, not get into an email exchange. I've done my bit and it's going to rain so I urged anyone interested to get over soon.

While I was in Freecycle I saw this wanted post 

Hm. Maybe the gilded look is spreading beyond Washington? Ew.

I have turned a corner with the crochet.

I now know what I'm doing. That broad bit at the bottom wraps around the back of the heel, and will be stitched. Now I'm working the sole of the foot.   

It wasn't only the stitch that was tough, but doing it with accommodations for what is now functionally a partly disabled hand. 

This work isn't pretty but it will work as a proof of concept and a template for a future project. I'm very pleased with what I've learned here.

And look what came in the mail. Comic relief.

This cracked me up. An exclusive club I don't qualify for! Could they be more oblivious of people's feelings? Medics certainly have a different way of seeing the world. I'm guessing it's my age range that's expected to be falling to bits.

Also my age range is probably why I'm getting many many offers to take the condo off my hands. For cash. Fast. Easy. Three texts and calls just today.

On the other hand, my doctor's office called this afternoon and announced that the recent blood work is normal. So there!

 In other good news: in NJ as of today it is illegal for stores to use variable pricing. That's where their surveillance shows your personal shopping information and charges different customers different prices for the same product.  So yay us. 

And, because of cyclobadstuff, I did check with Misfits about sourcing of produce and they tell me their records show no instances of involvement with the sus sources. So far so good. I'm still cooking what I can't peel though.

Today's reading, among other books, is this gripping story, historical fiction, of a young girl in a Venice orphanage, abandoned at birth by a young woman who couldn't keep her. 

The orphanage has a music program, and after flute, piano and voice, she turns out to be a violin prodigy who gets Vivaldi as her teacher.

It's very well written, understanding synaesthesia and its relationship to music and the drive of a child born to play. I'm liking this.

Happy day everyone, my new neighbor just showed up to borrow my stepladder, which just arrived back from Gary! Her (and his) granddaughter is available to help her hang drapes so she's seizing the day. 

Hot, smoky, but Freecycle and Misfits

I've been listening to a YouTuber who has the best understanding I've heard about how clutter then hoarding happen, and how stuff takes energy just by being there. 

I'm nearer a minimalist than a hoarder, but this hot weather has sapped my energy and I may as well move on some items on my mind instead of using mental energy over them.

So I looked at three drawers of yarn, nice stuff mostly donated. I've used all I can,  and winnowed out the yarn in colors I don't like or have used enough. Just one drawer, didn't get carried away. Here's the haul 

Mostly it's lovely and I've had all the use I'm getting, so now it needs to be with someone else. I have another drawer full of yarn I like and will use, either weaving or knitting. 

In about two minutes I had several requests, one to pick it up a couple of hours later, very enthusiastic, too.

She took it as promised, then got back to me after she'd had a chance to look.

isn't that just what you hope for? Everyone happy.

Then there was Misfits, poor guy delivering in this weather, bad air and heat. He seemed cheerful though.

Here's the box just arrived, and the Freecycle bag about to be picked up 

And here's the haul. Quite a bit of fresh produce including leafy greens, ordered before I knew about the cyclo bad bacteria.

I checked and found it's destroyed by cooking. Soooo, I steamed the carrots and mixed green salad, and made a quick quiche type pie thing, in an abundance of whatever they said during the pandemic. I now have an abundance of vegetable quiche,

and red fruit  Tomorrow I'll make strawberry jam. Today I stewed the apples and plumcots together, nice combo. 

So I have easy and safe food for a few days.

Meanwhile, cream cheese which I usually make but thought I'd try their product. Tomorrow I'll have some with bread and that future strawberry jam, for afternoon tea.

Yogurt because it's a staple, shrimp for Cajun shrimp again, it was so good last time, beautiful eggs, never fail to admire them, some went into the veg quiche. Pumpkin for various uses including beating into yogurt for dessert. Butter because I'm getting low, unsalted because I like to decide how much salt to use.

Next time I'll catch up on food pantry offerings. 

One thing and another,  I didn't get into the weaving set-up as planned. The bad air really knocks out your energy even if you don't go out. I expect it gets in via air conditioning. I'm so thankful that I got the dental work started before the heat returned.

But I think I got a lot done that I wanted to, and tomorrow is another day.

Meanwhile I'm reading and dozing over this, frothy mystery, the kind with recipes, I love it. There are three in one book.

Happy day everyone, sufficient unto the day be the weaving thereof.

Bit by bit, and more flowers

I was out early this morning for fasting lab work, routine annual stuff, Handsome Son driving. Then we stopped at the bank on the way home,  and got the check situation sorted. 

Home to breakfast, and I found myself warping up another little krokbragd piece. I really like working with this little tapestry loom.

I'm consolidating the skills I've learned. It feels much simpler now, and I can now read the weaving much better now.

I listened to The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts while I wove. I really enjoyed the weaving now that I can work that chart 

It was bright, windy and cool on the deck in the afternoon,  and I noticed how the wind turned over the maple foliage showing the pale underside.

It reminded me of "willows whiten". Extra credit if you recognize it.

The chimney people got back to me and we set up an appointment to clean the dryer vent. Then my obligation to the HOA will be complete for a while. 

And I finally parted with a few items to Freecycle.

They're nice, wearable, altered to fit and only tried on.  But they just don't suit me. Better on someone who can wear them than sitting in my clothes closet.  They were picked up about two hours from posting.

Happy day everyone. Despite my insisting that it's not important to be productive, I still like a day when I get a few things accomplished.